What's on offer? A study in Jeremiah chapter 3

Truth and Consequences: 

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Lesson Three (of 52): What’s on offer for Jewish people today?

  INTRODUCTION

A couple of weeks ago we began this full-year study of the book of Jeremiah. And the YouTube activity is already in gear; thanks to those of you who are joining our class after we record and post the lecture part of it. And thanks to each of you who is here live in the Zoom room and will participate in the Q and A when we are halfway finished. This is lively and I appreciate each of you.

For those watching this study on YouTube, please pause your playback of this class, read chapter three of Jeremiah and rejoin us, thanks.

Today’s lesson: What’s on offer for Jewish people today?

In today’s lesson, we see some major themes arising. Some again and some for the first time in this prophetic book. We see harlotry decried and we hear the aching, the longing of the Almighty for his people. This week we hear the family relationships between Israel (up north) and Judah (down south) and their relationship and their copycat activity. As the banquets around the US today are laden with turkey and all the fixin’s and so much food is on offer, I thought I’d show you that God has much on offer as well. And Jeremiah will help us see that today. Let’s jump into it.

1. A call to repentance (.1-5)

As is typical of prophets in the days of the Bible, after a listing of the sins of the people, and remember last week we saw 10 specific images of failure applied to our people, the prophet calls for a turnaround, a 180 roundabout placed in the path of the people. So today, we are not disappointed—that’s just what we see. 

The context of verse 1 is Torah, specifically the 24^th chapter of Deuteronomy. There Moses gave us this commandment:

When a man takes a wife and marries her, and it happens that she finds no favour in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out from his house, and she leaves his house and goes and becomes another man’s wife, and if the latter husband turns against her and writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, or if the latter husband dies who took her to be his wife, then her former husband who sent her away is not allowed to take her again to be his wife, since she has been defiled; for that is an abomination before the LORD, and you shall not bring sin on the land which the LORD your God gives you as an inheritance.” (Deut. 24.1-4)

What was Moses’s point? I believe the commandment was given to remind us that we should not be cavalier about marriage. Who are the people who might want to return to Wife #1 after such a 2^nd marriage? Imagine this. Someone committed to his partner who divorces her for a weekend or a year away, for whatever adventure purposes, then returns to his original partner. This ‘plus-one’ hiatus, where the man finds a loaner wife is exactly what Moses is trying to prevent.

You have to ask yourself, why bring that commandment to mind? There are so many in the 613 that Jeremiah could have listed. What’s his point?

In context, with Israel running away from God and hooking up with Assyrians and Egyptians, with the idolatry and adultery which Jeremiah announced, they have abandoned the Lord who married them. We are his people; we are his bride. And when we divorce ourselves from God, will he be allowed to marry us again? The Deuteronomy passage teaches us that God connected disobedience to this law regarding remarriage with a defilement of the land, making it greatly polluted.

So it looks hopeless.

Moses would agree and say, ‘no’, but God is playing the God card. He’s saying he is not bound by human motivations and human limitations. There is a Hosea-type reproachment in view. 

Matthew Henry says this of the opening section today: “In repentance, it is good to think upon the sins of which we have been guilty, and the places and companies where they have been committed. How gently the Lord had corrected them! In receiving penitents, he is God, and not man. Whatever thou hast said or done hitherto, wilt thou not from this time apply to me? Will not this grace of God overcome thee? Now pardon is proclaimed, wilt thou not take the benefit? They will hope to find in him the tender compassions of a Father towards a returning prodigal. They will come to him as the Guide of their youth: youth needs a guide. Repenting sinners may encourage themselves that God will not keep his anger to the end. All God’s mercies, in every age, suggest encouragement; and what can be so desirable for the young, as to have the Lord for their Father, and the Guide of their youth? Let parents daily direct their children earnestly to seek this blessing.”

I’m so grateful for God’s offer and how he does not keep his anger forever. Repentance is on offer today! I’m so thankful on this American Thanksgiving Day for all of God’s provisions. This morning I watched the 95^th annual parade in New York City, and flashed back on my time there in the 1980s and 1990s. Our kids used to line the footpaths with my wife and the 10s of thousands who awoke crazy early just to see the big balloons of Snoopy and Smokey the Bear. I along with the team of Jews for Jesus would hand out leaflets about being thankful and knowing to whom to say thanks on this special day. Ah, good times.

Back in the early part of the 17^th century, God gave those early settlers in what would become the USA, rescue from the hardships of winter, of a lack of foods, of the sadness and loneliness of being away from their Native land of Mother England. Beyond what they asked for, God provided relationships with native peoples in a bit of harmony that from what I’ve heard could have even been drawn from the Jewish holiday of Sukkot. A true autumn thanksgiving festival. Amazing what the Bible informs and whom.

The reference to the Arab is the marauding and bedouin Arabian who lay in wait by the side of the road to plunder the passersby. Think of the Somalian boats a few years back who were known as modern pirates. Same imagery. In other words, the Jewish people were not even necessarily going after the foreign gods and the foreign ways of thinking. The peoples of the world were after us. And friends, that’s the way it is today as well. Stand still and you start going backwards. Unless you advance, unless you take God seriously, unless you keep walking with him in daily meditation and prayer, you will slip; you will decay. Why? Because the world, the flesh and the devil are ever advancing and attacking. Remember Peter taught us, “the devil is roaring, seeking whom he may devour.”  (1 Peter 5.8) They lay in wait for you, but walking with the Lord is the way to win. Surrender to him each morning and evening. Pray with others. Listen to biblical podcasts, read godly literature, and grow in relationships with others in your believing community, here online and where you live!

You might wonder about the reference to dry land and unfruitfulness. Is that part of the curse? Perhaps, but I see this as God bringing evidence to Israel that even though they had gone after the gods of the idol-worshipers under the promise of bounty, those gods had failed. All the promises of the New Age, all the assurances of the book The Secret, all the guarantees that if we just believe, we can fly to the sky and earn 100,000 new dollars next year, if we just follow their idolatry and submit to their pagan ways, our land will be full of crops. God says, ‘the evidence is in. Your new gods failed you.’ 

1. 2. Judah is WORSE than Israel (.6-11)

In verse 6, God asks Jeremiah to evaluate the situation. He says what we have just unpacked and it actually sounds like he is disappointed. Jeremiah is invited to consider and conclude that Israel should have turned back to God. 

There is an adjective that might be translated differently in your Bible than the others. It’s in verse 6, and is the word MESHUVAH. Sometimes ‘faithless’ and sometimes ‘backsliding’. The root is ‘shoov’ meaning to return, but it’s not about returning to God, but returning to the dark side, to evil, to sin. 

There is another adjective used a couple of times of Judah, the little sister in this chapter, and that is treacherous. The Hebrew uses the three-letter root BAGAD, and that also is the root of the word for clothing. 

Throughout Genesis especially, clothing is often used in deception and treachery. 

Consider Jacob and his father, consider the brothers of Joseph who lied about the coat of many colors. Treachery and clothing were connected again when Joseph, now a servant in Egypt, was sexually pursued by the wife of his master Potiphar. And even Tamar was told by Jacob to stay in her widow’s garments until her brother-in-law could grow up and marry her. All treachery and deception. All related to clothing. 

And let’s go beyond that word for clothing. The simple draw that Judah, the younger sister in this text, the southern section of the geography of the Promised Land, should have understood and her takeaway, would have been to return to God, to draw near to him, to stop pursuing false gods and to live for him. That’s the takeaway Jeremiah wanted for her. That’s the takeaway God wanted for her. 

And for us. Think about it; when we see fabled ministers fall away, what is our takeaway? Do we draw closer? Or do we think we can get away with such indiscretions? When we hear of churches that go wayward, like that Lutheran church on Long Island that moved to heresy about the person of Yeshua because they had gotten involved in Jewish thinking… what does that do to us, to our people, to our connections? What’s your takeaway when you read about ministry mistakes? Or when you read this third chapter of Jeremiah? I urge you—learn from the mistakes of others. Don’t go down the wrong path. No one wins if you do.

Wisdom was on offer for Judah, but she turned aside.We don’t need to learn by making our own mistakes. 

1. 3. Forgiveness is available (.12-20)

Verse 12 introduces the call of God with clarity, once again to the Jewish people. This time, the northerners. Now God assigns the prophet to the task of calling Israel to repent. He calls them meshoovah, faithless, again. He then says, “I will not look upon you in anger.” The Hebrew though is from NAFAL, meaning to fall on you. God says my face will not fall on you! Have you ever imagined the power of God, and especially the angry power of God, like a monster in the movies, falling on people? He doesn’t just turn his back; he actually pounces, to catch, to capture, and take back to his den. Here God says, Nope, that’s not what I’m going to do. I’m offering myself to you; we’re going to get you through this. KI CHASEED ANI. I am GRACE. I am full of kindness. You forgot who I was and am. I want you to walk with me, to know me, to get to know me. One day at a time. Fall in love with me. I’m on your side because I want you on my side.

Verse 13: Only acknowledge, really know your sin. Get it. Learn about how far you are from me. And with a longing to be with me, you will work to make that happen. Imagine being a youngster at the Summer Olympics and your hero is a hurdler. You are shorter than each hurdle and you look up along the path, you see a hurdle and cannot even imagine overcoming that. You are mesmerised by it. The goals you might set are too high and too far. You cannot even see the finish line, but you can see the problem, the hurdle. 

Friends, keep your eyes there for a moment. I agree. THEN look at the one who overcomes those. The hurdler is the one you have to connect with. He wins. He wants you to win. Attach yourself to him AND acknowledge the impossibility of winning and you will win.

John taught us in his letter, “if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1.9)

I will forgive you, God says, and in verse 14, I will give you shepherds. God says your leaders were leading you incorrectly. Now he’s going to offer a swap, and bring in his own people. 

Then another promise, verse 16. When you get settled in the land (again), you won’t be looking to the past for strength and guidance. You don’t need the ark of the covenant. It will be taken away, and you will find another answer to the guidance system. God’s new government would overwhelm the religious and the previous governments. Verse 17. God’s throne previously established on the ark would now be in Jerusalem. And later, we know that God’s throne will not even be there, but rather in his heavens in the New Jerusalem. All the nations will be gathered to earthly Jerusalem in the eschaton; buckle your seat belt, there’s much more to come.

You will be beautiful and I am going to ask you to call me Father again. You did before but it was presumption. Now we will have a relationship that makes sense. No more treachery. No more idolatry. No more adultery. Forgiveness is on offer!

1. 4. Jewish people express repentance (.21-25)

The final section today begins in verse 21. Israel begins to turn. We realize our error. We confess our sins. God has already said what he will do. But he has one final call. Verse 22: return oh faithless (backsliding) sons. You are mishpochah. You should be in the house on Thanksgiving, not in the shed. You should come eat the fattened calf and turkey, not sitting in the pigpen and dining with the pigs. 

What does Israel do? They repent. I hear the music at the end of the movie and it’s uplifting. 

They tell God they are his. 

“Behold, we come to You; for You are the LORD our God.

Surely, the hills are a deception, a tumult on the mountains. 

Surely in the LORD our God is the salvation of Israel. But the shameful thing has consumed the labour of our fathers since our youth, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters. Let us lie down in our shame, and let our humiliation cover us; for we have sinned against the LORD our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even to this day. And we have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God.”

They owned their sin. They owned their wrongs. AND they owned their God. 

What a great lesson in humility and listening. Admit your wrong. Cry out to God for forgiveness and he is willing AND able to make that happen.

What is God saying to you through all this?  

What will you do with this information today?

CONCLUSION

God is calling each of us to know him and to walk with him, today and throughout our days. Have you received Yeshua as your messiah and Lord? Have you renounced your sin, your idolatry, your forsaking God and given him First Place in your life? If not, please, do so now, just now, as we pray together. Use your own words, if you want, but yield, surrender, to the Lord of life. 

PRAYER

Then please write us (admin@jewsforjesus.org.au) to tell us what you have just done, and we will send you literature and encourage you. You are part of our family; we love and appreciate you. And we want you to enjoy the presence of the Lord who calls, who knows, who blesses and builds us up. 

We hope to see you again next week as we study chapter 4, and until then Shabbat shalom!

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Craigie, Peter; Kelley, Page; Drinkard, Joel. Word Biblical Commentary. Book of Jeremiah.  1991. 

Weirsbe, Warren. Be Decisive. David Cook Publishers, Colorado Springs 1991.

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ACTUAL TEXT

God says, “If a husband divorces his wife 

And she goes from him 

And belongs to another man, 

Will he still return to her? 

Will not that land be completely polluted? 

But you are a harlot with many lovers; 

Yet you turn to Me,” declares the LORD.

²  “Lift up your eyes to the bare heights and see; 

Where have you not been violated? 

By the roads you have sat for them 

Like an Arab in the desert, 

And you have polluted a land 

With your harlotry and with your wickedness.

³  Therefore the showers have been withheld, 

And there has been no spring rain. 

Yet you had a harlot’s forehead; 

You refused to be ashamed.

⁴  Have you not just now called to Me, 

‘My Father, You are the friend of my youth?

⁵  Will He be angry forever? 

Will He be indignant to the end?’ 

Behold, you have spoken 

And have done evil things, 

And you have had your way.”

Jer. 3:6   Then the LORD said to me in the days of Josiah the king, “Have you seen what faithless Israel did? She went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and she was a harlot there. ⁷ “I thought, ‘After she has done all these things she will return to Me’; but she did not return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw it. ⁸ “And I saw that for all the adulteries of faithless Israel, I had sent her away and given her a writ of divorce, yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear; but she went and was a harlot also. ⁹ “Because of the lightness of her harlotry, she polluted the land and committed adultery with stones and trees. ¹⁰ “Yet in spite of all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to Me with all her heart, but rather in deception,” declares the LORD.

Jer. 3:11   And the LORD said to me, “Faithless Israel has proved herself more righteous than treacherous Judah.

¹²  “Go and proclaim these words toward the north and say, 

‘Return, faithless Israel,’ declares the LORD; 

‘I will not look upon you in anger. 

For I am gracious,’ declares the LORD; 

‘I will not be angry forever.

¹³  ‘Only acknowledge your iniquity, 

That you have transgressed against the LORD your God 

And have scattered your favours to the strangers under every green tree, 

And you have not obeyed My voice,’ declares the LORD.

¹⁴  ‘Return, O faithless sons,’ declares the LORD; 

‘For I am a master to you, 

And I will take you one from a city and two from a family, 

And I will bring you to Zion.’

Jer. 3:15   “Then I will give you shepherds after My own heart, who will feed you on knowledge and understanding. ¹⁶ “It shall be in those days when you are multiplied and increased in the land,” declares the LORD, “they will no longer say, ‘The ark of the covenant of the LORD.’ And it will not come to mind, nor will they remember it, nor will they miss it, nor will it be made again. ¹⁷ “At that time they will call Jerusalem ‘The Throne of the LORD,’ and all the nations will be gathered to it, to Jerusalem, for the name of the LORD; nor will they walk anymore after the stubbornness of their evil heart. ¹⁸ “In those days the house of Judah will walk with the house of Israel, and they will come together from the land of the north to the land that I gave your fathers as an inheritance.

Jer. 3:19    “Then I said, 

‘How I would set you among My sons 

And give you a pleasant land, 

The most beautiful inheritance of the nations!’ 

And I said, ‘You shall call Me, My Father, 

And not turn away from following Me.’

²⁰  “Surely, as a woman treacherously departs from her lover, 

So you have dealt treacherously with Me, 

O house of Israel,” declares the LORD.

Jer. 3:21    A voice is heard on the bare heights, 

The weeping and the supplications of the sons of Israel; 

Because they have perverted their way, 

They have forgotten the LORD their God.

²²  “Return, O faithless sons, I will heal your faithlessness.” 

“Behold, we come to You; 

For You are the LORD our God.

²³  “Surely, the hills are a deception, 

A tumult on the mountains. 

Surely in the LORD our God 

Is the salvation of Israel.

Jer. 3:24   “But the shameful thing has consumed the labour of our fathers since our youth, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters. ²⁵ “Let us lie down in our shame, and let our humiliation cover us; for we have sinned against the LORD our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even to this day. And we have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God.”